May 29, 2013

Lessons in Comedy

Caitlin Durante delivers laughs onstage.

Part-Time Tutor, Full-Time Comic

Caitlin Durante, a part-time writing tutor in Wentworth’s Learning Center since 2010, says her friends have always seen her as the goofy oddball. But it wasn’t until a longtime prank turned into an opportunity to meet new people that she began to see her jokes as something more.

“Before I actually started doing stand-up, I had this longing desire to be a comedian,” Durante said. “So sometimes, if I met a random person and they didn’t know anything about me, I had the habit of telling them that I did stand-up comedy. At the time it was a fib, but people never questioned it. And I thought, ‘Hey, if they believe in me, maybe I should believe in myself!’”

She then started taking stand-up comedy classes in New York City, where she was working at a literary agency, as a way to make friends. She initially thought it would be a short-lived hobby, but four years later Durante is still performing, now in Boston.

Durante’s initial foray into stand-up has led to an expanded interest in sketch and improv comedy. In addition to writing stand-up jokes, she has always been interested writing for film and television. Today, she’s enrolled in Boston University’s graduate program for screenwriting and recently finished a feature-length screenplay—an action-comedy about the Boston mob scene.

Durante has performed throughout the city at the Comedy Studio, Improv Boston, and Nick’s Comedy Stop, and describes Boston as a great city for comedy. In March, she performed at Boston’s annual Women in Comedy Festival.

Durante describes her comedy as “self-deprecating, absurdist, and nerdy, with way too many jokes about Star Wars.” Durante cites Louis C.K., Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Tina Fey, and Zach Galifianakis as her comedic influences.

“I just want to be writing stuff that makes people laugh,” Durante said. “That’s my goal.”